1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sprinkler and, more particularly, to a flow controller for use in a sprinkler.
2. Related Prior Art
Sprinklers are commonly used in gardening. A conventional sprinkler includes a lever. The lever is operable to control the flow rate of water sprinkled from the conventional sprinkler. Different types of plants in different phases of growth require different amounts of water. A user exerts various forces on the lever to cause the conventional sprinkler to sprinkle water onto the plants at different flow rates. It is however difficult to control the flow rates precisely. Moreover, a professional nursery garden is generally large. The user has to exert the forces on the lever for a long time, and this is exhausting and could entail sore palms and wrists of the user.
To solve the foregoing problems, there have been devised sprinklers with ratchet-based mechanisms to retain the sprinklers at various flow rates for a long time. However, it is technically difficult to provide a sprinkler with a ratchet-based mechanism since a sprinkler is small. Moreover, some of the ratchet-based mechanisms cannot be rotated in two directions. Hence, a user often has to rotate the ratchet-based mechanism for almost 360 degrees in a direction to switch the sprinkler from one flow rate to another although he or she might only have to rotate the ratchet-based mechanism for only several degrees in an opposite direction. This causes inconvenience and wastes a lot of water.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.